Zionists resort to “black propaganda” to counter Hamas

From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank Zionist and pro-Zionist internet websites are resorting to manifestly malicious black propaganda to counter increasingly successful media efforts exposing the evilness of the Israeli occupation. This week, a number of Zionist websites have been circulating a report from the Gaza Strip claiming that Hamas was marrying off female children below the age of ten years. A video circulating on the net, titled “Hamas’ shocking mass wedding for 450 girls,” alleged that the little girls taking part in a mass ceremony in Gaza a few weeks ago were actually being married off. Hamas, which has an extensive social service network, did organize a mass wedding for hundreds of poor Gazan grooms and brides, giving the newly-wed couples financial incentives and other inducements. Islam, which prohibits premarital sexual relations, encourages young men and women to get married rather than remain unmarried. The Gaza brides didn’t appear openly before the public, ostensibly in deference to conservative Islamic traditions. Instead, the young girls, dressed in white gowns, appeared in lieu of the brides for the show. Ahmed Ibrahim, one of the grooms taking place in the ceremony, described Zionist propaganda insinuations as “sick.” “Because these Zionists are themselves so prurient and sick in the mind that they think that all other people behave the same way.” Thanking Hamas for “making his dream come true,” Ibrahim said Hamas was trying to build an honorable society devoid of moral degeneration and promiscuity. “Where in the world a beleaguered organization that is constantly and relentlessly hounded by the entire world indulges in this charitable work, helping young men and women get married and build a new family?” Ibrahim, who hails from a refugee family originating in the now-obliterated town of al-Majdal, just north of Gaza, said he hoped Hamas would continue to sponsor these mass weddings. “These people (Zionists) are sick in the mind, they are trying to concoct stories and tales that would harm Hamas’ image. But their efforts are not succeeding and this is creating a lot of frustration among the Zionists. “The Zionist hatred of Islam is a clarion proof that Hamas is correct.” Last week, a number of Zionist Islamophobes sent out hundreds of messages containing the latest canard about Hamas. However, to their chagrin, very few sites, mostly affiliated with Christian Zionists and Jewish supremacist groups, decided to post the mendacious report. Serious sites, including some affiliated with right-wing Israeli media outlets, refused to post the reports out of concerns that doing so would undermine their credibility in the sight of an increasingly informed readership. In recent weeks, some Israeli internet sites have been disseminating deliberately-mendacious “reports” claiming that some Muslim clergymen in Iran had issued Fatwas or edicts allowing the rape of political detainees. The blatant disinformation is usually taken up by some Jewish twitters and re-packaged into “scoops” and “breaking news.” For many years, Israel and her supporters spread carefully-fabricated lies and half-truths aimed at wining over western public opinion. The hasbara (propaganda) lies included claims that Israel in 1948 didn’t expel the Palestinians from their ancestral homeland and that the refugees themselves chose to leave willingly. More recently, especially during the al-Aqsa intifada (2000-2005), the Israeli hasbara machine claimed that Palestinian families were encouraging their children to get killed by the Israeli army in order to tarnish Israel’s image abroad. However, Israeli efforts to sway western public opinions suffered what appeared to be an irreversible blow due to the proliferation of the internet and the emergence of “alternative information outlets.” More over, the genocidal Israeli blitz against the Gaza Strip earlier this year, which lasted for 21 days, proved to be a turning point in the PR showdown between Israel and the Palestinians as millions of Europeans and Americans and other people around the world began comparing Israel with Nazi Germany and the Israeli occupation army with the German Wehrmacht and SS. During the Gaza blitz, the Israeli army, using the state-of-the-art of the American technology of death, turned the coastal enclave into an updated version of Dresden, killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians, including more than 350 children. The Israeli army also utterly destroyed thousands of homes and public buildings, including mosques, schools, college and government buildings. Israel spends hundreds of millions of dollars per year on hasbara efforts. The bulk of the money is spent in the “American theatre” for the purpose of securing a consistent American public discourse in Israel’s favor. Israel has been relying on nearly unrestricted support from erstwhile giant American media outlets known traditionally as the “agenda setters.” However, the widespread proliferation of the internet and satellite television stations, such as al Jazeera, has substantially weakened the ability of Zionist-controlled and Zionist-influenced media to shape western public perceptions of the Palestinian plight. Moreover, many ordinary Americans and Europeans have become more outspoken and more courageous in their criticisms of Israel, challenging long-established taboos equating such criticisms with anti-Semitism. Israel and her supporters are worried that the worst is yet to come, which explains Zionist efforts to muzzle press and academic freedoms in important countries such as the United States.